Trials of Error
by aaetha
Summary: Terezi took one step into the arena and froze. No. No, it couldn't be. It was a hoax, a prank, her mind playing tricks on her. It wasn't possible. But it was. The distinct scent of candy red.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** A sadstuck I wrote about Terezi and Karkat, with the help of my friend Amanda, known as shadowsong66 on deviantArt. Please R&R!

*Let me clarify that this was a one-shot and not intended to be updated, unless I'm really-super-ultra bored and decide to write a second chapter*

* * *

Terezi awoke to find herself sore and shuddering from the nightmares she had just encountered. Disorientation overwhelmed her for a moment, and then she remembered. She remembered the ambush, dozens of highbloods popping up from seemingly nowhere to attack her hive. She remembered being whacked in the head from behind as she stumbled to her feet, trying to grab on to her cane. She remembered her scent-vision blurring as the world moved in slow-motion and Karkat was battling four trolls with a sickle and-

_Karkat!_ She sat bolt upright and went to stand up, but stopped because her thinkpan was spinning. Placing a hand to her head, she slowly put one foot on the ground, then another, sniffing the air around her as she did so. She was in a small room, which reeked of a lurid tyrian purple, the colour of the empress. The cell was bare; the only thing in it was her. It had a single door, with no inside handle. There was no way out. She was trapped, and without even her glasses to contact someone.

Terezi heard a muffled thump and arguing voices before the scent and sounds of a troll being shoved into her cell, accompanied by a fishy aroma. Seadweller, definitely. Magenta, if she had to guess the exact blood colour.

"C'mere, missy. Let's make this quick," he grunted. He reached out and grabbed her arm, clearly not anticipating her twisting out of his grip and punching him in the ribs. In the moment that he doubled over, she backed up and out of his reach, knowing there was nowhere to run. When he stood up again, Terezi lashed out with her leg. She misjudged, however, and he quickly blocked her blow and bruised her. With that pain added to all of her aching muscles and tender head, she found herself unable to work up the will to attack again.

She was dragged out the door and through a long corridor, struggling weakly against the seadweller's firm grip.

"Get… off… me!" she muttered through clenched teeth. He chuckled menacingly.

"Not a chance, li'l missy. Don' exert yourself here, the arena's comin' up." With nobody else to trust, Terezi took his words to heart and minimized her struggles to getting into a position that was slightly more comfortable. After travelling down the hall for what seemed like hours, the two of them neared the end, and Terezi heard the roar of a crowd. _The arena_, she guessed. The arena.

With that, the troll opened a door at the end of the hallway and shoved her forward. She stumbled into a small room, the same revolting purple as her previous cell. This one, however, had an open door on the other side. She quickly strode across and prepared to open the door, facing straight ahead. She had heard of the arena before, where the Condesce forced trolls to fight to the death, for the amusement of the Alternian nobles. And she knew that if she was going to die, she was going to do so with honor.

Her cane was in the room, and Terezi grabbed hold of it, turning the handle of the door at the same time. She took one step into the arena and froze.

No. No, it couldn't be. It was a hoax, a prank, her mind playing tricks on her. It wasn't possible. But it was. The distinct scent of candy red.

The crowd laughed mockingly at the stunned expression on her face. There had to have been some misunderstanding, perhaps she was supposed to be on a team with him? No, there was nobody else in the large, egg-shaped arena. Nobody but her, her opponent, and the bloodthirsty crowd.

She couldn't do it. There was no way. Anyone else but him. Anyone else, she could have buried her feelings and fought. Anyone but Karkat.

Even as a voice boomed through the room, Terezi was frozen still. She knew she couldn't kill him, couldn't even send a harsh word his way. Silently cursing the Condesce, she took one shaky step forward. Something had to be done. Not Karkat.

He smelled so frail, a hundred feet away. Another step. His sickle gleamed in the glare of the pure white lights on top of them. Step. She remembered making it for him. Step. She had painted it with some of the tastiest colours, from cotton-candy pink to key lime green. Step. She had left out red, of course. That was purely Karkat's colour.

Tears were running down her face now, pooling near her chin. Step. One voice rose above the dull roar. "Fight!" it called. "Fight!" The rest of the crowd took up the call. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" they chanted. Step. Her full attention was fixed on Karkat, ahead. He was standing still, completely frozen except for his arm, which was slowly raising the sickle.

Terezi was nearing the center now. Karkat lifted his weapon higher, and then he let go. He let go.

It clattered to the floor, and for the first time since they'd entered, the crowd was silent, fixated on the two. Karkat was running now, running towards her. Step. Step. Step. She was running too, the crowd forgotten as they met. His arms went around her, holding her tightly. She held him as well, and she didn't intend to let him go. Not Karkat.

Candy red tears welled up in his butterscotch orange eyes and rolled down his face. Terezi's teal tears joined them, creating a purple far more beautiful than the cruel magentas and violets of the heartless seadwellers. Karkat lifted one hand and gently cradled her face, wiping off her tears even as they flowed from her eyes. His soft lips brushed her forehead, a feather-light kiss that sent a shiver down her spine. He then kissed her nose, and finally, their lips met.

It was bliss, not to think, to just melt into the kiss and forget about everything. The couple was oblivious to the world around them, focused entirely on each other. Karkat's hand tangled in Terezi's licorice black hair and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. Tears slid from under their closed eyes as they pressed their lips together, lost in the moment. But all good things must end, and eventually the two of them drew away from each other, though they still held each other.

Terezi lowered her head onto Karkat's shoulder, and embraced him for the last time. In a whisper, so quiet that only Terezi could hear it, he murmured,

"I love you, Terezi." Intending to reply in kind, she lifted her head and opened her mouth. But before she could speak, her body jolted and she lost control of it. Unable to move or even breathe, Terezi was forced into the tiniest corner of her mind, screaming protests at the mental intruder. Purple hazed over her thoughts for a moment, and she could only listen as the highblood spoke in her voice.

"I could never love a mutant." Even as the words issued from her mouth, she tried to stop them, but to no avail. The look on Karkat's face was enough to make her want to cry again, but her tears had stopped with the Condesce's arrival.

Her one hand moved slowly to her side, the other holding Karkat still with an iron grip on his shoulder. The small amount of Terezi that remained fought, but she was stuck and could only watch as she pulled the top of her dragon-headed cane off, revealing a deadly blade. Placing it at the edge of his throat, she immediately saw the candy red of his blood well out of the tiny cut.

Silently, she drew the blade slowly across his neck, a sadistic smile appearing on her face at his open-mouthed astonishment. The grin widened when his pain registered and a scream rose from his lips. Terezi's struggles were for naught, and the sharp edge of the sword cut through muscle and sinew, reaching the edge of his windpipe. The yell trailed off as his vocal chords were sliced through, and his legs stopped working. Karkat fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood, his heart pumping any life that remained right out of him. In his last moments, his wildly rolling eyes beseeched Terezi to do something, but Her Imperial Condescension merely watched as he died.

Her hands, now splattered with red, were lifted to her mouth. She slowly stuck out her tongue and licked off the blood, its delicious candy red making her taste buds tingle. Terezi wanted to gag, wanted to scream and cry and kill all the highbloods, but she could do nothing, nothing at all.

Cackling wickedly, she lifted her cane and placed it into her own mouth. Terezi fought, and managed to push back the intrusive presence enough for her eyes to widen in horror, but it was too late. She pushed.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **'kay, so I know I said I wasn't going to add to this, but then this just... happened. So... yeah. ^^

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Terezi didn't know where she was, or how she'd gotten there, but it didn't matter, because she could smell Karkat a few feet away from her. She ran towards him, tears already threatening to fall from her eyes.

"K-karkat?" she choked out, around the lump in her throat. She didn't care that he was looking startled and annoyed; in fact, it only made him more endearing. Terezi threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Terezi, what the f-mmph!" Karkat was cut off mid-expletive as she pressed her lips to his. His eyes widened, but he didn't resist and returned the kiss after a moment. When they both broke away, Terezi grateful and Karkat exhilarated but confused, he attempted to speak again, but was cut off by an exclamation by Terezi.

"Karkles, you're alive!"

"Of course I'm fucking alive," he said, managing to sound ornery even under the circumstances. "I was never dead, fuckwit."

Terezi only laughed, glad to hear him insulting her.

"I thought- never mind," she said, choosing instead to kiss him once more, her arms twined around his neck. The feeling of his chapped lips on hers, something she'd never expected to feel again, was enough to make her dizzy, the world spinning around her.

In reality, the world was spinning, and it eventually consolidated into a wide-open space. In the centre stood Terezi and Karkat, the two wrapped in their own world, oblivious to anything but one another. Terezi didn't even realize where she was until she heard the roar of the crowd. The crowd of highbloods around

the

arena.

"Oh no," she murmured. Then, louder, "Nubbsy, c'mon, we need to get out of here, we have to-" She stopped at a choking sound from the other troll, and whirled around to see his hands at his throat. He drew them away and stared at them with shock and revulsion, loathing his blood colour even to his last moments. A tiny cut, bleeding copiously, was visible at the edge of his neck. Even as Terezi watched, it lengthened, causing Karkat to cough violently when it reached mid-throat, and there was blood coming out of his mouth too and oh gog there was just so

much

blood.

And she was going to drown in candy red, which swallowed up everything

but Karkat was dying

oh gog he was going to die again and there was nothing Terezi could do and it was her fault and she was drowning in red

The first thing she smelled when she awoke was Tyrian purple, and she lashed out without thinking, images of the Condesce springing to mind. However, the soft, calm, "Terezi, it's just me," filled her head with soothing thoughts of the wild-haired girl with her trailing cotton-candy skirt and gold tiara.

"Feferi?" she said- or at least, she tried to say, because as soon as she opened her paper dry mouth, she became aware of intense pain in her respiratory apparatus and throat. It slowly vanished as soft hands pressed gently at her waist.

As the pain vanished, she became aware of other things- including, for example, that she had no shirt on. She smelled a tangled black cloth to her right, and grabbed it, finding the sleeves and slipping it over her head, not even noticing that the teal symbol was on her back instead of her front.

"I had to take it off to heal you," Feferi said apologetically. "I hope you don't mind…" she trailed off. Terezi was indifferent, and responded only with a curt nod.

"I'm alive," she stated briskly.

"Yes…"

"Karkat isn't." There was a long silence.

"I'm sorry." Feferi was toying with the hem of her grey Witch of Life shirt, clearing her throat. "I was… too late."

Terezi stood, adjusted her glasses, and closed her eyes, not that it had any effect on her scent vision. She took a deep breath, figuring out her surroundings. They were outside her hive, she realized, the scalemates hanging from the trees being a dead giveaway. However, where her home usually stood was only a mess of ashes, a few brightly scented things standing out. Terezi strode over to what remained of the building and left Feferi sitting helplessly beside an indentation in the grass.

From the ashes, she retrieved a charred, folded sheet of paper with a heart messily scrawled onto the front. She opened it, and ran her fingers over the grey words she'd read many times.

MY BLOOD IS RED

YOUR BLOOD IS BLUE

I FUCKING HATE POEMS

BUT I'M STILL FLUSHED FOR YOU

It was a pathetic excuse for a Concupiscence Day card she'd ever seen, but Karkat had made it. His warm hand had traced the shape of these words with a pen, he'd folded it at that odd angle that wasn't really in half, he'd angrily smudged the ink when he couldn't spell words right.

The paper tore easily, and in a moment it was gone, gone

like

Karkat.

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So honestly I have no clue what I'm doing here, so if anyone wants to contribute plot ideas I will take them into consideration.

Vatala Darkmist: I wasn't planning to, but hey, here it is... not much happier though, is it?

Guest: N'aw, don't cry!

Thanks for reading! Reviews make me happy ^^


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